内容简介

Lew Rockwell's new manifesto is a clarion call—creative and thought-provoking on every page—for a principled liberty in our time. There are very few books in which you can open up any page and immediately find a quotable and inspiring passage that will make you think hard, laugh out loud, or see things a completely new way. This is certainly one of them.

He covers every topic related to economics and politics, from the business cycle, to trade, to the drug war, to environmentalism. His central thesis is that the threat to liberty comes from both the left and the right, and that neither really offers a consistent way out. The real problem is much deeper than either the right or the left recognizes. It is the institution of the state itself, which everyone seems to want to use to his own philosophical advantage.

The problem, he writes, is that not that we have chosen the wrong flavor of public policy but that we have public policy at all. All forms of policy—decisions made by state institutions that affect the uses of private property according to political priorities—amount to invasions of liberty. Relentlessly moving from left-wing to right-wing and back to left-wing policy is not progress; it means continued movement down the road to serfdom.

Beautifully edited and pristinely argued, this is a work in applied Austro-libertarian theory, tracking issues and headlines as they occur and bringing the light of logic and evidence to bear on the question at hand. The articles collected can be read in a matter of five minutes each, and they are organized along topical lines.

He is especially good in dealing with issues of national crisis, such as weather disasters, terrorist attacks, and economic downturns. He shows that liberty is more important in these times than any other. And while others back away during these times, he has consistently been out front, calling for peace when the masses are screaming for war, calling for freedom when the politicians demand a crackdown, and urging a free market when everyone else seems to be clamoring for state solutions.

If you have read Lew Rockwell's articles and speeches over the years, and wished for a single collection, it has finally arrived in a beautifully bound hardback that is a real treasure to own and study. It makes a lasting impact.

Rockwell is the founder and president of the Mises Institute, and the editor of his own site LewRockwell.com. He has played an important role in the shaping of libertarian theory for a quarter of a century. This book shows how and why. Subtle, radical, and compelling, Rockwell's book is a great addition to the legendary literature of political dissidents.

Part I: The State

Times Change, Principles Don't

Freedom Is Not "Public Policy"

Legalize Drunk Driving

Society Needs No Managers

Declaration Confusion

Anatomy of an Iraqi State

Why the State Is Different

Which Way the Young?

Absorbed by the State

Working Around Leviathan

Why Politics Fail

President Who?

Know Your Government

Private life?

Despotism and the Census

Take Not Insults From Campaigns

Liberty Yet Lives

Part II: The Left

Section 1: Socialism

The New Communism

The New Fabians

The Violence of Central Planning

National Treasures

Section 2: Regulation

Regulatory-Industrial Complex

The Incredible Stuff Machine

Wal-Mart Warms to the State

The Trouble With Licensure

Illusions of Power

Section 3: The Environment

Government Garbage

Gross Domestic Bunk

My Vice: Hating the Environment

Section 4: Free Trade & Globalization

Bastiat Was Right

Does World Trade Need World Government?

Should the Magi Have Bought Bethlehem?

Why They Hate Us

Section 5: Culture

Capitalism and Culture

Who's the American Taliban?

Mises On The Family

Why Professors Hate the Market

Section 6: Civil Rights

How Government Protects Potential Workplace Killers

The Trial of Lott

The Economics of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Part III: The Right

Section 1: Fascism & The Police State

The Reality of Red-State Fascism

Which Way for Liberty?

Slouching Towards Statism

Economic Ignorance

Drug War Death Toll

Section 2: War

False Glory

My Speech at the Anti-War Rally

Anything for a Buck

Was Lenin Right?

War and the Economy

Iraq and the Democratic Empire

Even Conservatives Need the Anti-War Movement

Section 3: 9-11

What Not To Do

Forgotten Victims of 9-11

Counterterrorism (by Government) is Impossible

An Inevitable Bog

The Meaning of Security

A Tribute to Trade

Part IV: The Market

Section 1: Capitalism (and Mercantilism)

The Millennium's Great Idea

The Legitimacy of Capitalism

Art, Faith, and the Marketplace

Capitalism and the Burger Wars

In Praise of Failure

The Blessings of Deflation

Are Markets Boring?

Do Food Makers Want to Kill You?

In Praise of Shoddy Products

The Super-Rich Tax Themselves

The Steel Ripoff

The Bridge of Asses

Can the Market Deliver Letters?

Bethlehem's Economic Lessons

The Faith of Entrepreneurs

Section 2: Economics & Economists

What Economics Is Not

Economics: The Weather-Vane Profession

Keynes Rules From the Grave

Myths of the Mixed Economy

A Marxoid "Oops"

Still the State's Greatest Living Enemy

Section 3: Banking & The Business Cycle

The Case for the Barbarous Relic

Those Bad Old Buttoned-Up Days

The Political Business Cycle

Y2K and the Banks

Bank Privacy Hypocrisy

Unplug the Money Machine

The Dot-Com Future

Blaming Business

Define It Away

What Made the Next Depression Worse

Section 4: Natural Disasters

War on Gougers?

Weapon of Mass Creation

The State and the Flood

Part V: What To Do

The Mal-Intents

What We Mean by Decentralization

Secede?

What Should Freedom Lovers Do?

Strategies for the Battle Ahead

The United Front Against Liberty

The Definition and Defense of Freedom